Taking Back Sunday is Ready to Celebrate

The cult following that Long Island-formed pop punk band Taking Back Sunday has amassed over the course of their 20-year career is a dedicated and diverse one. Though the band has gone through a couple of lineup changes over the years, their sound–and energy–has never wavered. One of the most fundamental qualities to TBS is that their live show always delivers a heart-pumping, adrenaline-infused, cathartic release for its community of fans. “I feel like there’s a great vibe in the crowd and the way people interact with each other. There’s sort of like a celebratory–almost like a big family gathering type of a feeling and I think that’s become a big part of the appeal for our shows,” TBS guitarist John Nolan says of the band’s audiences.

So, what better way to truly celebrate the band’s 20 years of making music with a year-long world tour?

The punk rock veterans will perform across the globe throughout 2019 with the anniversary tour concluding in New York City with two nights at Terminal 5 (November 15 and 16). The band will pay homage to their extensive repertoire of music by performing their debut album Tell All Your Friends in its entirety.

Upon embarking on this massive achievement and all the reflecting on the past 20 years that comes with it, TBS frontman Adam Lazzara admitted that he had some initial reservations about the idea of nostalgia. “Our manager is the one who described [the tour] as more of a celebration of all we’ve accomplished together,” he adds.

To truly celebrate, the band released their newest album Twenty earlier this year. The album features 19 songs from the seven full-length album discography and two new tracks. While revisiting their past albums, Lazzara and Nolan managed to track down some of their initial inspirations for getting into music. “The way [music] made us feel. It was the ultimate escape and it accompanied everything in our lives. We always knew we wanted to be involved with music and to look back now at how we’ve been able to do it for all these years… we’re just extremely fortunate,” Lazzara says.

For Nolan, since the day he picked up a guitar at the ripe age of 16, it hasn’t left his hands. Even when I arrived for our interview, Nolan was plucking away. “I remember I would put on Nirvana and Pearl Jam albums and sing as loud as I could. It did something for me and I could sort of live vicariously through them and vent all these frustrations that I was feeling,” he tells me. “And yeah, I just kind of remember thinking that if I could do what they’re doing as my job, that would be the most amazing thing.”

Throughout the band’s tour, there are several two-night performances scheduled in which they will offer a double-album play. To decide whether they will play Where You Want To Be or Louder Now (in addition to Tell All Your Friends) on the first night, the band will flip a coin. Either way, fans will be on their feet, loud as ever, ready to rock.